This blog is about family, including those in my family tree, the primary focus, but also the family of faith, the family of community, and ultimately the family of man. It is a journey of discovery: Who they were, What they did (and Why), and When, Where, and How they lived.

Friday, May 4, 2018

In the news, Friday, April 20, 2018

Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.Some sources may require subscription.

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from Asia Times Online

Trouble brewing for US shale amid bottlenecks, spending crunchThe much-touted boom in US shale production is facing a potential crisis, with the emergence of bottlenecks up and down the supply chain. There is a “crisis at the heart of US shale,” Nick Cunningham writes at OilPrice.com. Drillers are facing rising prices across the board for labor, rigs, services and land, he says, while a lack of pipeline capacity is beginning to force discounts for oil up to US$9 per barrel. Cunningham cited a new report from Rystad Energy, which found that there just isn’t enough pumping power to go around.

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS

Trump is Cutting Through Regulations, but Only Congress Can Make it Last.President Trump has been cutting money-draining red tape at a quick pace, but a regulatory budget would cement the benefits for American citizens. Trump’s regulatory reform efforts saved the economy about $570 million in 2017. When compared to the cost of federal regulations, that barely makes a dent, but it’s a start. The U.S. budget is approximately $4 trillion. Though they provide benefits, federal regulations cost Americans and the economy nearly half of that ever year, according to an estimate by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. With an annual tab of almost $1.9 trillion, federal regulations cost nearly $15,000 per household.

CFPB $1 Billion Fine Against Wells Fargo Shows Regulator Power in Trump Era
"The $1 billion fine levied on Wells Fargo by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Comptroller of the Currency shows that regulatory agencies still have plenty of powers to inflict penalties on even large financial institutions even as they ease regulatory barriers that penalize financial consumers and entrepreneurs.... Both the CFPB and the OCC should make sure that proceeds from this fine go directly to the victims and not to left-wing advocacy groups, as they did under the previous CFPB director.”

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from Medium Community

Trump Scores Major North Korea Points; Dems Sue WikiLeaks For Telling The Truth
Pyongyang has just announced that it is suspending intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests, and is closing down a nuclear testing site as a sign of good faith. President Trump was of course quick to jump on Twitter to congratulate himself, and his supporters are all enthusiastically cheering him on. As MIT professor Vipin Narang notes, the precise wording of the statement from the DPRK doesn’t necessarily preclude certain other types of testing. More importantly, this could all just be the first step toward Kim Jong Un winding up like another Gaddafi, who was destroyed by the western empire shortly after relinquishing Libya’s nuclear program. But neither of these things matter right now as far as public perception goes. It cannot be denied that Trump has secured major political points today. Meanwhile what are Trump’s political opponents doing to gain momentum leading up to the 2018 midterms? Why, they’re suing WikiLeaks for telling the truth about them. The Democratic party suing WikiLeaks for costing them the election is like an armed robbery convict suing a security camera company for getting him arrested. The emails it published are 100 percent authentic and entirely undisputed, and they consist of nothing other than Democratic party big wigs talking to one another.

Racism is a white problem. I know that many white people will instinctively and emphatically resist that observation. They’ll note the self-evident truth that prejudice is confined to no one culture or color. Having known more than a few African-American bigots, homophobes and anti-Semites, I’ll be happy to concede the point. But racism is more than prejudice. It is, rather, the system by which prejudice is encoded into the laws and customs of a society so that, to take an example not quite at random, two black men can be arrested for waiting quietly on a prospective business associate to arrive for a meeting at Starbucks.

Allison Mack of ‘Smallville’ Is Charged With Sex Trafficking
An actress from the television series “Smallville” was charged on Friday with sex trafficking for her involvement in an organization promoting itself as a self-help group for women that forced its members to have sex with its leader, federal prosecutors said. The actress, Allison Mack, 35, helped gain recruits for what was purported to be a mentorship group but instead exploited its followers, who were branded with a symbol containing the initials of the organization’s leader, said Richard P. Donoghue, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement. Ms. Mack participated in a group know as Nxivm (pronounced Nex-e-um), the authorities said. The organization, near Albany, was led by Keith Raniere, 57, who was arrested in March by federal officials in Mexico on sex-trafficking charges. Its followers were forced to have sex with him because they feared that if they did not do so, compromising material that they had provided about themselves would be released publicly, according to a complaint.

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from Orthodox Christianity

Organization in Moscow, Russia

UKRAINIAN RADICALS DECIDED THAT POROSHENKO GAVE THEM A SIGNAL TO SEIZE PARISHES OF CANONICAL CHURCHThe initiative of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, supported by the nation’s parliament, to create one, Local Ukrainian Church as soon as possible and by any means possible was picked up on by Ukrainian nationalists, who believe it was the president’s signal to them that it is time to act and to begin more forcefully seizing parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a self-governing Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Various groups of radicals have already been seizing parishes throughout Ukraine and turning Ukrainians against one another for years. “With his appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch, President Poroshenko unambiguously gave a signal to Ukrainian patriots that it’s enough waiting, that we can no longer close our eyes to this chaos, and that we must seize churches of the Moscow Patriarchate, declared colleagues of Dimitry Korchinsky, the head of the “Brotherhood” political party, yesterday.

KIEV REPRESENTATIVE ALREADY ARRIVED IN TURKEY TO HAND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH APPEAL FOR AUTOCEPHALOUS CHURCHThe Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Rostislav Pavlenko has arrived in Turkey to personally hand President Petro Poroshenko’s appeal for a single, autocephalous Church in Ukraine to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, just one day after the Ukrainian parliament voted to support the initiative, reports Interfax-Religion. “Pavlenko is now in Istanbul. I won’t lose a day; we are delivering [our appeal—O.C.],” President Poroshenko told journalists during a working trip to Lvov today. Speaking of the prospects for receiving a tomos of autocephaly for a Local Ukrainian Church from the Ecumenical Patriarch, the head of state reflected, “Anything can happen, but I am absolutely convinced that everything is up to the will of God.” Moreover, he stated that he hopes the fact that his appeal was signed by all the hierarchs of Ukraine’s two schismatic churches will give him the right to establish a single Local Church and realize the goal of being separate from the Moscow Patriarchate.

DEPUTIES OPPOSED TO POROSHENKO’S PLAN SEND ADDRESS TO ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHDeputies from the Ukrainian parliament “Opposition Bloc” have sent an address to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, decrying President Petro Poroshenko’s plan to interfere in Church matters and force the creation of a single, autocephalous Church in Ukraine, reports The Union of Orthodox Journalists. The opposition deputies have instead asked for the patriarch’s prayers and blessing. The president has the support of the hierarchy of the nation’s two schismatic bodies which exist for the purpose of not being with the Moscow Patriarchate. The Verkhovna Rada voted yesterday to support President Poroshenko’s initiative to formally appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch to create an autocephalous Ukrainian Church, despite the protests of the Opposition Bloc and other deputies. In their message to the patriarch, the Opposition deputies appealed to him not to support the president’s and parliament’s encroachment into ecclesiastical affairs, expressing confidence that the creation of a single Local Church would only exacerbate the split in Ukrainian society.

THE LIGHT IN THE TUNNELThe Lenten Sunday Gospel lessons from St. Mark (Mark 2:1-12, 8:34-9:1, 9:17-31, 10:32-45) help shape our understanding of what it is to be a disciple of Christ. But also experience them as moving through an ever narrowing tunnel. But also and always, there is a speck of light at the end of the tunnel – and there is an end to the tunnel! We are drawn toward the Light, who is Christ. Throughout Lent, we like the catechumens of ancient times continue to move toward Christ. In fact this is our entire spiritual life even when not in Lent. But to get to the Light, as we realize liturgically in the Church, we must pass through this painful and most narrow passage – the Gospel. We end up on our hands and knees in the tomb of Christ.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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fromSputnik

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Broadcasting & Media Production Company out of Moscow, Russia

War in Syria 'Is Not Over by a Long Shot,' Analyst Explains WhyThe Trump administration is engaged in talks with Arab allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others, to forge an Arab force that would replace the roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria when they eventually depart. Sputnik spoke to journalist Steve Topple to find out how serious such a proposal actually is.